"The Rules"
Mar 5, 2015 5:09:22 GMT
Post by William Swiger on Mar 5, 2015 5:09:22 GMT
Sword Buyer’s Guide Forum Charter of Member Rights and Responsibilities
(aka “The Rules”)
Greetings! And welcome to the Sword Buyer’s Guide Forum!
Our goal here is to be the friendliest sword loving community online – and while that goal is admirable, achieving it takes work on the part of the entire community. This new forum represents a fresh start towards fulfilling our mandate. To that end we have written up a “Charter of Member Rights and Responsibilities” to govern the behaviour of members and staff on this forum. These are not just rules but an agreement to work for the betterment of the community at all times that, by joining this forum as a Member, you have agreed to uphold.
SBG Forum Member Rights
As a Member of the SBG Forum, you have a right to:
1. A safe and family friendly environment, which the staff and moderators will work to provide;
2. A forum that positively contributes to the industry and sword collecting community as a whole;
3. The ability to share accurate and uncensored information about different swords, manufacturers, vendors and other products/services (including SBG itself) be it positive or negative;
4. To be treated with respect by other members, staff and moderators;
5. Threads that you start to stay on topic as much as possible;
6. To have moderator/staff activity (such as suspensions or banning) to be clear and not seem to be done “under the table.”
SBG Forum Member Responsibilities
As a Member of the SBG Forum, you have a responsibility to:
1. Contribute to the safe and family friendly environment through the use of appropriate (PG to PG-13) language, subject matter and outside website linkage;
2. Not participate in divisive talk that puts down SFI, Myarmoury or ANY other sword loving community – we have more in common than we do differently, and each community fills a niche in a way that is worthy of respect;
3. Share information about different swords, manufacturers, vendors and other products/services in a respectful and responsible manner, not resorting to slander, liable speech, heckling, or other immature/hostile behaviour;
4. To treat other Members, staff and moderators with respect at all times (in public and via private message) despite your personal feelings toward them. If as a Member you are treated disrespectfully or “attacked” by another Member, do not react to it in the same spirit but simply report the post to a moderator. The chivalrous thing to do in these situations is to simply ignore inflammatory comments – they will be dealt with quickly enough by the active moderator on duty;
5. Keep other Members’ threads on topic by not derailing or otherwise hijacking the topic of a thread. If the OP (original poster) asks about a specific product or question, do not answer ‘get a [insert alternative product here] instead’ unless the OP has specifically requested alternative options. If you do not like a particular product, you must address it in a ‘pros and cons’ format. In other words, find a few good things to say about it – not just dismiss it out of hand because it is not to your personal tastes;
6. Ask questions via private message of the moderators and staff if an action taken (such as banning, suspension) against a Member seems unclear instead of spreading rumours.
7. Do not question or make negative comments about moderation actions in the public forum. If you feel the need to question an action by the moderation team, please do so by private message. The same rules of conduct apply via private messages as they do on the regular forum.
8. No discussion of religion or politics on the forum in any section. The use of blue text is reserved for use by the Moderation Team. The use of blue text indicates official moderation on the forum.
9. Trolling will not be tolerated under any circumstance. Definition of trolling (from Wikipedia): "In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion."
10. The owner of Hung Shing True Sharp () has been banned from this forum. As such, there will be no mention of him, his company or his products on this forum. This is a permanent ban. Members who try to circumvent this rule by using other names for will be in violation of the rule.
11. Requests of recommendations for weapons to be used in the potential commission of unlawful or unethical actions such as killing, maiming or the sacrifice of living creatures is not allowed.
12. The sale or trade of firearms and certain firearm-related accessories in the SBG classifieds is strictly prohibited. Prohibited items include: antique, modern, curios, and replica firearms, as well as projectile signaling devices (flare guns, mortars, grenade launchers, etc.), ammunition, high-capacity magazines, black powder, tannerite, any type of restricted/regulated firearm part (receivers, sears, silencers, etc.), or any other item or accessory which is deemed related to firearms as determined by moderator staff. The sale of these items are strictly regulated by local, state, federal, and international law - and though they may not be prohibited/restricted in a prospective buyer's area - SBG does not condone the classifieds to be used the sale, trade, or transfer of any such items. Ads which are posted are subject to immediate deletion. Any attempt to sell or trade firearms or firearm-related products can result in formal warnings or account suspension/removal.
Offenses
If a Member chooses to be negligent of their responsibility to the community, there may be action taken against them by the moderator. Before action is taken by a moderator the Member may be contacted by staff or moderators and given the opportunity to undo their negative behaviour. The following are a brief list of actions that may be taken towards a negligent Member:
Verbal (written) warning: a moderator or staff may issue a warning (via private message) to a Member for a minor violation of their responsibilities. Examples of this may include:
- first offense of intentional disrespect/hostility towards another Member, Manufacturer/Vendor, staff or moderator, including in retaliation (or “in self defence”) towards someone else’s actions;
- linking to an inappropriate website on the open forum;
- more than one instance of intentionally derailing threads (not to be confused with the natural progression of a thread as the conversation evolves).
Account Suspension: a moderator or staff may suspend a Member’s account for a period of time (3 to 7 days depending on severity) for a continued or mid-level violation of their responsibilities. Examples of this may include:
- more than one offence of intentional disrespect/hostility towards another Member, Manufacturer/Vendor, staff or moderator, including in retaliation (or “in self defence”) towards someone else’s actions, OR an act of intentional disrespect/hostility that is especially severe;
- continuing to link to inappropriate websites on the open forum
- persistently and intentionally derailing threads.
Account Deletion (Banning): a moderator or staff may delete a Member’s account and ban their IP address for continued or extreme violation of their responsibilities. Examples of this may include:
- three or more offence(s) of intentional disrespect/hostility towards another Member, Manufacturer/Vendor, staff or moderator, including in retaliation (or “in self defence”) towards someone else’s actions, OR an act of intentional disrespect/hostility that is extreme and reprehensible;
- any statement that is racist, homophobic, or otherwise a statement of hatred against a category of persons (race, colour, religion, sex/sexuality, etc);
- uttering threats against someone on the forum;
- intentionally instructing someone to perform dangerous or illegal activity
- posting another Member’s personal information online without their consent;
- taking advantage of individuals through the classifieds of the forum (e.g. making false claims about good being sold, stealing, etc);
- a forum member portraying themselves to a manufacturer or vendor as a representative of SBG in order to acquire free “review swords”;
- a Member informing a moderator or staff when given a warning that they have no intention of following the rules.
- blocking a Moderator or Admin on any SBG affiliated forum or social media page.
Final Thoughts
Advertising policy: Vendors and manufacturers are encouraged to post in their own dedicated forum – but strongly discouraged from posting about their wares in other parts of the forum. The only exception is where a manufacturers product is being discussed and they are invited to share additional information to clarify a discussion. If you are a manufacturer or vendor, please contact us for information on our various advertising packages – prices are extremely reasonable and all proceeds are returned to the forum to cover the costs of official competitions, hosting fees and other forum related expenses that benefit the community as a whole. You are encouraged, though, to take part in regular forum discussion for the enrichment of all.
Use of the SBG Name: The SBG name cannot be used to promote a product or service without prior written approval from SBG. Despite the best of intentions, there were issues in the past with manufacturers and hobbyists making swords for the SBG community and then failing to come up with the goods. As this damages the sites reputation and puts our community at risk of financial loss, each and every request to market a product exclusively for the SBG community must be formally approved by SBG Management.
Interactions with Sword Makers and Vendors
One of our primary goals at the SBG forums is to encourage healthy and meaningful discourse between sword makers and members of the sword buying community. If well managed, such interactions can and have historically resulted in design improvements and refinements of the swords available on the market, servicing sub niches within the sword collecting spectrum, and generally improving both the affordability and quality of swords.
If this feedback loop operates at its full potential, it will be mutually beneficial to sword makers AND the people who buy swords. However in the past, unregulated interactions would often eventually deteriorate to the point where a few members with an agenda, open or hidden, would drive them away from wishing to interact with the community - resulting in a net loss for community as a whole.
The whole, one rotten apple spoils the barrel problem - so to combat this problem, ALL interactions with forum members that are recognized as Manufacturer and Vendors are governed by the following special additional rules.
a) Engagements with M&V will be mutually civil and respectful. This includes criticisms and complaints, both of which can be presented and discussed with civility.
b) Criticisms and complaints should be presented with some level of evidence, not third hand "I know a guy who said..." It is not up to the accused to provide evidence but visa versa - unprovable statements or speculation is NOT permitted when interacting with or discussing Manufacture and Vendors recognized on this forum.
c) Instigation of witch hunts, flame wars, baseless/unfounded allegations, personal attacks and/or insults will not be tolerated.
d) Inquiries, criticisms and comments should be relevant to the specific M&V and the product that they are discussing unless alternate topics are invited by the M&V.
e) Personal issues with M&V should remain personal and conducted via the PM function.
f) M&V should be given opportunity to rectify a situation before they are crucified for it.
Comments, critiques and founded complaints are welcome. Blatant disregard of these rules by ANY party can be met with a ban without warning.
Minor infractions, and infractions deemed to be unintentional are at the moderators discretion to warn them or ban them outright. In short, there is ZERO tolerance for disrespectful or uncivil behavior and this is NOT the place to air your dirty laundry or try to put a company you have some kind of issue with out of business, and we simply refuse to be a platform for such behavior.
This forum is not one person, it is the sum of all its members, and it's the members who set the tone. If we wish this to be a friendly forum with healthy discourse with the very people who create, produce and make available the items that we all love and desire then we must make it a place where they can come and feel welcome and interact without constantly putting out fires and getting shot at.
In short, if you have some kind of hidden agenda or if you cannot be civil - you are not welcome on these forums, period. If you can be respectful and civil, and abide by the commonsense rules above - Welcome to the SBG Sword Forum.
(aka “The Rules”)
Greetings! And welcome to the Sword Buyer’s Guide Forum!
Our goal here is to be the friendliest sword loving community online – and while that goal is admirable, achieving it takes work on the part of the entire community. This new forum represents a fresh start towards fulfilling our mandate. To that end we have written up a “Charter of Member Rights and Responsibilities” to govern the behaviour of members and staff on this forum. These are not just rules but an agreement to work for the betterment of the community at all times that, by joining this forum as a Member, you have agreed to uphold.
SBG Forum Member Rights
As a Member of the SBG Forum, you have a right to:
1. A safe and family friendly environment, which the staff and moderators will work to provide;
2. A forum that positively contributes to the industry and sword collecting community as a whole;
3. The ability to share accurate and uncensored information about different swords, manufacturers, vendors and other products/services (including SBG itself) be it positive or negative;
4. To be treated with respect by other members, staff and moderators;
5. Threads that you start to stay on topic as much as possible;
6. To have moderator/staff activity (such as suspensions or banning) to be clear and not seem to be done “under the table.”
SBG Forum Member Responsibilities
As a Member of the SBG Forum, you have a responsibility to:
1. Contribute to the safe and family friendly environment through the use of appropriate (PG to PG-13) language, subject matter and outside website linkage;
2. Not participate in divisive talk that puts down SFI, Myarmoury or ANY other sword loving community – we have more in common than we do differently, and each community fills a niche in a way that is worthy of respect;
3. Share information about different swords, manufacturers, vendors and other products/services in a respectful and responsible manner, not resorting to slander, liable speech, heckling, or other immature/hostile behaviour;
4. To treat other Members, staff and moderators with respect at all times (in public and via private message) despite your personal feelings toward them. If as a Member you are treated disrespectfully or “attacked” by another Member, do not react to it in the same spirit but simply report the post to a moderator. The chivalrous thing to do in these situations is to simply ignore inflammatory comments – they will be dealt with quickly enough by the active moderator on duty;
5. Keep other Members’ threads on topic by not derailing or otherwise hijacking the topic of a thread. If the OP (original poster) asks about a specific product or question, do not answer ‘get a [insert alternative product here] instead’ unless the OP has specifically requested alternative options. If you do not like a particular product, you must address it in a ‘pros and cons’ format. In other words, find a few good things to say about it – not just dismiss it out of hand because it is not to your personal tastes;
6. Ask questions via private message of the moderators and staff if an action taken (such as banning, suspension) against a Member seems unclear instead of spreading rumours.
7. Do not question or make negative comments about moderation actions in the public forum. If you feel the need to question an action by the moderation team, please do so by private message. The same rules of conduct apply via private messages as they do on the regular forum.
8. No discussion of religion or politics on the forum in any section. The use of blue text is reserved for use by the Moderation Team. The use of blue text indicates official moderation on the forum.
9. Trolling will not be tolerated under any circumstance. Definition of trolling (from Wikipedia): "In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the deliberate intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion."
10. The owner of Hung Shing True Sharp () has been banned from this forum. As such, there will be no mention of him, his company or his products on this forum. This is a permanent ban. Members who try to circumvent this rule by using other names for will be in violation of the rule.
11. Requests of recommendations for weapons to be used in the potential commission of unlawful or unethical actions such as killing, maiming or the sacrifice of living creatures is not allowed.
12. The sale or trade of firearms and certain firearm-related accessories in the SBG classifieds is strictly prohibited. Prohibited items include: antique, modern, curios, and replica firearms, as well as projectile signaling devices (flare guns, mortars, grenade launchers, etc.), ammunition, high-capacity magazines, black powder, tannerite, any type of restricted/regulated firearm part (receivers, sears, silencers, etc.), or any other item or accessory which is deemed related to firearms as determined by moderator staff. The sale of these items are strictly regulated by local, state, federal, and international law - and though they may not be prohibited/restricted in a prospective buyer's area - SBG does not condone the classifieds to be used the sale, trade, or transfer of any such items. Ads which are posted are subject to immediate deletion. Any attempt to sell or trade firearms or firearm-related products can result in formal warnings or account suspension/removal.
Offenses
If a Member chooses to be negligent of their responsibility to the community, there may be action taken against them by the moderator. Before action is taken by a moderator the Member may be contacted by staff or moderators and given the opportunity to undo their negative behaviour. The following are a brief list of actions that may be taken towards a negligent Member:
Verbal (written) warning: a moderator or staff may issue a warning (via private message) to a Member for a minor violation of their responsibilities. Examples of this may include:
- first offense of intentional disrespect/hostility towards another Member, Manufacturer/Vendor, staff or moderator, including in retaliation (or “in self defence”) towards someone else’s actions;
- linking to an inappropriate website on the open forum;
- more than one instance of intentionally derailing threads (not to be confused with the natural progression of a thread as the conversation evolves).
Account Suspension: a moderator or staff may suspend a Member’s account for a period of time (3 to 7 days depending on severity) for a continued or mid-level violation of their responsibilities. Examples of this may include:
- more than one offence of intentional disrespect/hostility towards another Member, Manufacturer/Vendor, staff or moderator, including in retaliation (or “in self defence”) towards someone else’s actions, OR an act of intentional disrespect/hostility that is especially severe;
- continuing to link to inappropriate websites on the open forum
- persistently and intentionally derailing threads.
Account Deletion (Banning): a moderator or staff may delete a Member’s account and ban their IP address for continued or extreme violation of their responsibilities. Examples of this may include:
- three or more offence(s) of intentional disrespect/hostility towards another Member, Manufacturer/Vendor, staff or moderator, including in retaliation (or “in self defence”) towards someone else’s actions, OR an act of intentional disrespect/hostility that is extreme and reprehensible;
- any statement that is racist, homophobic, or otherwise a statement of hatred against a category of persons (race, colour, religion, sex/sexuality, etc);
- uttering threats against someone on the forum;
- intentionally instructing someone to perform dangerous or illegal activity
- posting another Member’s personal information online without their consent;
- taking advantage of individuals through the classifieds of the forum (e.g. making false claims about good being sold, stealing, etc);
- a forum member portraying themselves to a manufacturer or vendor as a representative of SBG in order to acquire free “review swords”;
- a Member informing a moderator or staff when given a warning that they have no intention of following the rules.
- blocking a Moderator or Admin on any SBG affiliated forum or social media page.
Final Thoughts
Advertising policy: Vendors and manufacturers are encouraged to post in their own dedicated forum – but strongly discouraged from posting about their wares in other parts of the forum. The only exception is where a manufacturers product is being discussed and they are invited to share additional information to clarify a discussion. If you are a manufacturer or vendor, please contact us for information on our various advertising packages – prices are extremely reasonable and all proceeds are returned to the forum to cover the costs of official competitions, hosting fees and other forum related expenses that benefit the community as a whole. You are encouraged, though, to take part in regular forum discussion for the enrichment of all.
Use of the SBG Name: The SBG name cannot be used to promote a product or service without prior written approval from SBG. Despite the best of intentions, there were issues in the past with manufacturers and hobbyists making swords for the SBG community and then failing to come up with the goods. As this damages the sites reputation and puts our community at risk of financial loss, each and every request to market a product exclusively for the SBG community must be formally approved by SBG Management.
Interactions with Sword Makers and Vendors
One of our primary goals at the SBG forums is to encourage healthy and meaningful discourse between sword makers and members of the sword buying community. If well managed, such interactions can and have historically resulted in design improvements and refinements of the swords available on the market, servicing sub niches within the sword collecting spectrum, and generally improving both the affordability and quality of swords.
If this feedback loop operates at its full potential, it will be mutually beneficial to sword makers AND the people who buy swords. However in the past, unregulated interactions would often eventually deteriorate to the point where a few members with an agenda, open or hidden, would drive them away from wishing to interact with the community - resulting in a net loss for community as a whole.
The whole, one rotten apple spoils the barrel problem - so to combat this problem, ALL interactions with forum members that are recognized as Manufacturer and Vendors are governed by the following special additional rules.
a) Engagements with M&V will be mutually civil and respectful. This includes criticisms and complaints, both of which can be presented and discussed with civility.
b) Criticisms and complaints should be presented with some level of evidence, not third hand "I know a guy who said..." It is not up to the accused to provide evidence but visa versa - unprovable statements or speculation is NOT permitted when interacting with or discussing Manufacture and Vendors recognized on this forum.
c) Instigation of witch hunts, flame wars, baseless/unfounded allegations, personal attacks and/or insults will not be tolerated.
d) Inquiries, criticisms and comments should be relevant to the specific M&V and the product that they are discussing unless alternate topics are invited by the M&V.
e) Personal issues with M&V should remain personal and conducted via the PM function.
f) M&V should be given opportunity to rectify a situation before they are crucified for it.
Comments, critiques and founded complaints are welcome. Blatant disregard of these rules by ANY party can be met with a ban without warning.
Minor infractions, and infractions deemed to be unintentional are at the moderators discretion to warn them or ban them outright. In short, there is ZERO tolerance for disrespectful or uncivil behavior and this is NOT the place to air your dirty laundry or try to put a company you have some kind of issue with out of business, and we simply refuse to be a platform for such behavior.
This forum is not one person, it is the sum of all its members, and it's the members who set the tone. If we wish this to be a friendly forum with healthy discourse with the very people who create, produce and make available the items that we all love and desire then we must make it a place where they can come and feel welcome and interact without constantly putting out fires and getting shot at.
In short, if you have some kind of hidden agenda or if you cannot be civil - you are not welcome on these forums, period. If you can be respectful and civil, and abide by the commonsense rules above - Welcome to the SBG Sword Forum.